The present invention relates to a video signal processing device and, more particularly, to a video signal processing device having a video signal processing circuit for encoding character data or command data within a vertical blanking period of a video signal for display.
In recent years, video signal processing device technology has greatly improved, allowing for the production of much cheaper and much smaller camcorder devices, greatly increasing their popularity as well as their accessibility. Consequently, camcorders are now widely available, allowing numerous users to record any desirable video event easily, such as a wedding ceremony, a child's birthday party, family travel and the like. As the number of video recordings increase, it becomes desireable to identify numerous video information recordings with date/time data. Present technology allows a user to program the date/time of the recorded video event into the video recorder.
This encoded date/time information is displayed at playback in a comer of a TV screen where it is immediately recognizable by the user.
TV receivers may have built-in decoders for decoding character information such as caption data. In such a device, a video signal containing encoded caption data transmitted from a camcorder or video cassette recorder (VCR) can display the encoded information during the video signal display.
A problem arises, however, when the viewer of a played back video signal wishes to remove, or delete, for example, date/time data from the TV screen that was previously recorded by the camcorder during video recording. This is because the date/time data are superimposed on the video signal itself during the video recording process. Once such data is recorded, it is impossible to delete the data in order to prevent its display on the TV screen when the video signal is played back. For example, the viewer may wish to more clearly view an area of the video screen where the date/time data is being displayed. However, without the means provided by the present invention, the date/time data cannot be conveniently deleted.
At present, video cassette recorders (VCRS) connected to TV receivers for the transfer of video signals do not provide means allowing the VCR user to encode caption or other data into the video signal for display. Further, even if caption data has been encoded into a video signal for display, it was not possible to regulate the operation of the TV receiver with it. For example, to regulate the sound volume of the TV receiver, a control code must be encoded into the video signal transmitted to the TV receiver. Also, the TV receiver must be provided with means for decoding such encoded sound volume regulating caption data.